Washington's Doublethink on Syria's Civil War and Chemical Weapons

While it received almost no coverage in the Western media, the United States Department of State has made its final determination on the November 24, 2018 chemical attack in northwestern Aleppo.  

In case you have forgotten, on November 24, 2018, as reported on Sputniknews, the Russian military stated that "terrorist groups" had fired 120 mm mortars at neighbourhoods on the north-west side of Aleppo.  The mortars were fired from a location in the demilitarized buffer zone between rebel and government forces.  According to Sputnik, the 120 millimetre shells appear to have been filled with chlorine and resulted in the hospitalization of 94 civilians including women and children.    This resulted in actions by Russian forces which claimed to eliminate the rebels responsible for the attack.

A number of rebel groups denied involvement including Nour al-Dien al-Zenki as shown here:

Here is a map showing the key locations for the November 24th attack:

Here is a video from Russia's Zvezda TV News showing the aftermath of the attack and Russia's response which is alleged to have eliminated the "terrorists":

At the time of the attack, the Syrian government and the Russian Ministry of Defense blamed rebel forces.  Just to give you a sense of how militarily complex the area is, here is a map showing how the region around Aleppo is divided among the groups currently fighting in Syria: 

If you think that isn't complex enough, here is a graphic showing the links between the groups involved in the Syrian civil war:

Now, let's look at what the U.S. Department of State had to say about the November 24th attack:

Basically, in this case, Washington is blaming Russia and the Assad regime for falsifying a chlorine attack, stating that these two allies used tear gas against civilians in Aleppo in an effort to derail the ceasefire in Idlib province which was enforced after a September meeting between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan.  This agreement was undertaken to ensure the safety of Syrian civilians in Idlib Province which lies along the front between rebel controlled areas to the west and Syrian government forces to the east.  There were great concerns that an all-out battle along the front line between the two sides would result in a humanitarian catastrophe.

It is interesting to look at the chemical attacks that have taken place in the lengthy civil war that has plagued Syria since March 2011.  It seems that Washington has taken a firm stance that Syria's government forces (pro-Assad) are to blame for any attack whether it takes place in government-held territory or rebel/anti-government/terrorist-held territory, a classic case of Orwellian doublethink.  No matter what the Assad regime or the Russian forces do, they simply cannot win in the eyes of Washington.  It is also a particularly cynical stance given that Washington is quite clearly in breach of international convention by using white phosphorus munitions against civilians in Syria as shown here.

A Chemical Weapons Primer

Chemical weapons have been in the news for days but, other than sending primal chills through most of us, we really have no idea about what they are or what their impact is on the human body.

A Chemical Warfare Agent Identification Fact Sheet published by Physicians for Human Rights provides us with a succinct listing of the most common chemical agents, their physical properties and their impact on humans.

Let's start with a chart showing a summary of the physical properties of key chemical agents:

Now let's look at the symptoms:

1.) Nerve Agents - pinpoint pupils, blurred vision heavy sweating and drooling, headache, drowsiness, nausea, respiratory distress, localized twitching and seizures, altered mental status.  All nerve agents act by preventing the proper operation of an enzyme that acts as the body's off with for glands and muscles.  Without this off switch, the body's glands and muscles are constantly being stimulated which eventually results in exhaustion and death.

a.) VX is among the most lethal of the nerve agents, causing severe disruption to the nervous system.  VX was originally developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1950s.  The only known use of VX is as a chemical warfare agent.  A lethal dose of VX is slightly larger than the head of a pin.  VX is odorless and tasteless and the liquid form is amber in colour with an oily consistency.  It can remain in the environment for weeks to months since the oily form evaporates very slowly.  It is denser than air and sinks into topographically low spots.  Clothing provides little protection since VX can penetrate civilian clothing and be absorbed through any body surface.  Gas masks protect only the lungs and eyes from VX.

In the case of VX, symptoms will occur within seconds of exposure and death can result within the same timeframe. 

b.) Sarin is among the most quickly evaporating nerve agents.  Sarin was developed in 1938 in Germany and was originally used as a pesticide.  Exposure to even small doses of sarin can be lethal.  It is odorless, tasteless and colorless and is heavier than air in gas form.  It can penetrate clothing and be absorbed through any body surface.  Gas masks protect only the lungs and eyes from Sarin.  Sarin can also be absorbed through the ingesting of contaminated food or water.

In the case of Sarin, symptoms will occur within one minute of exposure.

One of the most recent uses of Sarin was a terrorist attack on Tokyo's subway system in March 1995 as shown here:

c.) Tabun (GA) is a tastless and colorless and tasteless liquid with a faint fruity smell that can become a vapor when heated.  Tabun was developed as a pesticide in Germany in 1936.  Tabun is also denser than air and sinks into topographically low areas.  It also mixes easily with water so it can be used to contaminate a water supply.  It breaks down slowly in the body; repeated exposures can have a cumulative effect.  It can penetrate clothing and be absorbed through any body surface.  Gas masks will protect only the lungs and eyes from Tabun. 

In the case of Tabun, symptoms will occur within 2 to 5 minutes of exposure to the liquid form and within seconds to the vapor form.  

The rate of symptoms for all nerve agents varies with the type of agent used; in the case of vapors, symptoms occur within seconds and minutes and in the case of liquids, symptoms occur up to 18 hours after exposure.  A urine sample can define whether a person was exposed to a nerve agent.

2.) BZ (Incapacitating Agent) - severely altered mental status resulting in hallucinations and severe confusion, dilated pupils which create difficulty in seeing, dry eyes, mouth and skin due to diminished mucous secretion, impairment of vision, coma.  This central nervous system depressant was developed following World War II after the United States military investigated the use of incapacitating agents.  BZ or 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate was weaponized in the 1960s for possible battlefield use.  BZ is colourless, tasteless and odorless and is not normally lethal but is incapacitating in even the smallest of doses.  BZ will be absorbed by any body surface; gas masks will only protect the lungs and eyes. 

In the case of BZ, symptoms will occur within one hour after exposure and last up to three days.  Exposure to BZ can only be detected in urine.  It is generally non-lethal in small doses.

3.) Mustard Gas - skin irritation and blisters, severe irritation of eyes, nose, mouth and throat, difficulty breathing which leads to pneumonia, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea.  Mustard damages DNA, particularly in bone marrow causing decreased production of blood cells or decreased red or white blood cells and platelets.  It was introduced in the First World War as a chemical warfare agent and was, at one time, used to treat psoriasis.  Mustard is usually odorless but can smell like mustard, onions, horseradish or garlic.  The gas form is usually yellow/brown in color and the liquid and solid forms are yellow or brown.  The gas is heavier than air and sinks into topographically low spots.  The gas is also carried easily by air currents and can remain in the environment for up to two days in warm weather and a week in colder climates.  It is rarely deadly to healthy individuals but it can cause death in victims with poor health.  Mustard will be absorbed by any body surface and can penetrate clothing.  Gas masks protect only the lungs and eyes.

Here is are photos showing mustard gas blisters and eye irritation:

In the case of mustard gas, symptoms occur within 2 to 24 hours after exposure.  Exposure to mustard can be detected in urine.  If the person exposed to mustard is decontaminated using soapy water within two minutes of exposure, blisters will not form.  It is rarely fatal; in the First World War, it killed less than 5 percent of those exposed.

While I was researching this posting, I wondered - what kind of mind would spend his or her days, developing chemicals and means of delivering those chemicals that clearly have no other purpose than to inflict deadly harm to another human being and what kind of a government, now or in the past, would continue to fund that development, particularly when it became very clear what level of pain its use could inflict?

The Use of Chemical Weapons and How History Repeats Itself

Updated November 2013

The irony of the world's stance on Syria's use of chemical weapons is lost on most of us. In researching another posting on the subject of chemical weapons earlier this week, I stumbled on a very interesting bit of history that I would suspect that most of us are not aware of or have forgotten, a time in history that is particularly pertinent given that the United States and Europe are attempting to negotiate some sort of anti-nuclear agreement with Iran.  As usual, I'm using what I consider the highest quality sources for this posting; although it may appear that this comes from the "tin foil-hatted, conspiracy obsessed", in fact, the source for much of this posting is the CIA.  While I definitely don't believe that governments and their agencies are always truthful, in this case, I see no reason for them to prevaricate.

Let's open with a 1990 quote from Saddam Hussein:

"By God, spare us your evil.  Pick up your goods and leave.  We do not need an atomic bomb.  We have the dual chemical.  Let them take note of this.  We have the dual chemical.  It exists in Iraq."

As I posted here, Iraq has a great deal of experience with chemical weapons (CW) during the protracted Iran-Iraq war that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988.  I know it's hard to recall the reality of that decade but Iraq was considered to be a friend to the United States and as such, was the beneficiary of American technology and intelligence.  One of those benefits, granted by corporations from at least three NATO countries, was the implementation of a chemical weapons program.  

Fortunately, the CIA reveals the source of at least some these chemical weapons for us.  Let’s start with some background on Iraq’s CW program.

Iraq first became interested in the use of chemical weapons in the early 1960s when it perceived that it was under threat from both Israel and Iran.  The Iraqi Chemical Corps was established in 1964 and began to synthesize small volumes of CW agents in 19??.  According to Global Security, during the 1960s, Iraqi junior Army officers were trained in chemical warfare by both Russia and the United States during the 1960s.  It is these officers that were folded into the Chemical Corps.  Oddly, the more Senior officers in the Iraqi Army favoured a defensive CW program whereas the foreign-trained Junior officers favoured both a defensive and offensive approach to CW.  By 1974, the Al Hasan Ibn al-Haithem Research Foundation was founded and new laboratories were constructed near Baghdad.  Al Hasan was intimately supported by the Iraqi Intelligence Service and was founded by Ghassan Ibrahim a captain in the Chemical Corps.    The facility was closed and the organization was liquidated in 1978 because it failed to achieve its objectives as well as mismanagement and fraud.  By the end of 1979, the Chemical Corps was reorganized and began to produce CW agents under the guise of testing defensive equipment.

When the war with Iran began in 1980, the Iraqis suddenly had motivation to expand the development of their CW program.  This project, code-named Research Center 922 or Project 922 was initialized on June 8, 1981 with the objective of producing mustard gas, Tabin, Sarin and VX as well as white phosphorus munitions.  Project 922 began construction of a 100 square kilometer CW research and production centre near Samaara.  To maintain its anonymity, Project 922 was known to civilian Iraqis as a pesticide production company with a front company named the State Establishment for Pesticide Production (SEPP).  The facility quickly began production of CW agents, producing 85 tons of mustard agent from 1981 to 1982.  The facility produced 350 tons of mustard by 1985, growing to 900 tons in 1987.  Between 1984 and 1986, Iraq produced between 60 and 80 tons of Tabun annually.  By 1987 - 1988, Iraq produced up to 394 tons of Sarin annually.

Let's now look at who helped Iraq.  As you will see in the State Department cable below, the United States (and likely its allies) were well aware that Iraq was using chemical warfare by March of 1984 (and likely quite a bit earlier).

1.) Egypt - during its early years, Egyptian scientists provided consultation and technology that allowed rapid development and production of CW stocks, particularly during the Iran-Iraq war.  In 1983, Egypt modified the Grad 122mm Multiple Rocket Launch System to enable warheads to store chemical agents and exported these rockets to Iraq in 1984.

2.) Germany - West German businesses using East German designs supervised the creation of what was, at the time, the world's most modern and best-planned CW facility.  Construction activity was particularly heavy during 1982 - 1983 with Germany's Karl Kolb, a German supplier of scientific instrumentation and components particularly for developing nations, building five large research laboratories, an administrative building, eight large underground bunkers for the storage of chemical munitions and the first production buildings.  Karl Kolb described the production plants that it built as "general multi-purpose pilot plants" which provided both the company and the Iraqi government with plausible deniability since the buildings could and were used for both pesticide (civilian) and CW (military) development and production.

3.) Netherlands - two Dutch companies, Melchemie and KBS supplied Iraq with thousands of tons of chemicals that are considered to be the precursors to to production of CW including 1000 tons of thionylchloride, 100 tons of phosphor, 600 tons of sodium cyanide and 500 tons of thiodiglycol (TDG) between 1982 and 1985.  

Here's what Iraq's CW infrastructure looked like before 1991 and Desert Storm:

Unfortunately, in the early 1980s (and even today), the world was (and still is) the "wild west" when it comes to trading of components and chemicals that can be used to develop and produce chemical weapons.  Even Phillips Petroleum, owner of a small Belgian chemical plant, shipped 500 tons of thiodiglycol (TDG) to Iraq in 1983.  While TDG is a multipurpose chemical that can be used for agriculture, it can also be used to produce mustard gas.  To Phillips' credit, once they got word that Iraq might be using TDG to manufacture mustard, they refused a second order. 

Now, let's look at what happened in March 1984.  During that month, the United States refused to back a United Nations resolution condemning Iraq's use of chemical weapons even though by that time, there had already been at least three mustard attacks with more than 5000 casualties.  The U.S. preferred to back a resolution that condemned the use of chemical weapons without mentioning Iraq by name as shown in this State Department cable:

Note that U.S. Diplomat requests of Iraqi diplomat Kizam Hamdoon that the nation halt its purchasing of chemical weapons from U.S. suppliers,  "avoiding situations that would lead to difficult and possibly embarrassing situation. (sic)" and that while the U.S. government would be implementing licensing requirements on five chemical compounds for both Iran and Iraq, the U.S. "...does not want this issue to dominate our bilateral relationship nor to detract from our common interest to see the war brought to an early end." as shown here:

Now, let's look at the results of the use of chemicals by Iraq, keeping the above reticence in mind.  During the war, once again according to the CIA, Iran suffered more than 50,000 casualties including more than ten thousand casualties and thousands of fatalities from the use of chemical weapons.   This was an issue that was suddenly of importance to the United States as they prepared to invade Iraq during Gulf War 1.  In a memo dated February 20th, 1991, the CIA notes the following:

Here is a listing of the implementation of chemical weapons by Iraq during the war and the results:

Iraq ultilized almost 19,500 chemical bombs, over 54,000 chemical artillery shells and 27,000 short-range chemical rockets between 1983 and 1988, consuming 1800 tons of mustard gas, 140 tons of Tabun and 600 tons of Sarin, mainly in the last 18 months of the war.  I guess it's a good thing that there was no further embarrassment involved, isn't it.

While the world waits the military response to the Syrian chemical warfare issue, we can clearly see that the development of these weapons around the world can be laid at the feet of many nations.  We know that North Korea and Iran are connected to Syria's CW program, however, as we can see from the information that I have provided on Iraq's CW program, it is a very, very complicated web of suppliers from many nations that are ultimately responsible for the development and production of chemical weapons.  It's also interesting to see that, way back when, the United States was more concerned about being embarrassed by Iraq's purchase and use of chemical precursors from the U.S. than about their actual ongoing implementation.

Going back to the present stance of world, particularly the United States, on the issue of taking action against Syria; history really does repeat itself in one fashion or another.  The only difference from one act of irony to the next are the players.

I know that if I was Iran's leadership, I'd not forget how the nations currently negotiating the end of Iran's nuclear program stood by while thousands of Iranians were killed with chemical weapons.

Complicity in the Use of Chemical Weapons

In light of the recent use of chemicals in the war in Syria, Foreign Policy has revealed that the United States was, at the very least, complicit in a chemical attack nearly a generation ago.  

Let's open with John Kerry's comment about the situation in Syria:

"...the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders, by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity.  By any standard it is inexcusable...."

Back in 1988, American intelligence became aware that the ongoing Iran-Iraq war was not going well for Iraq.  Remember, way, way, way back then in an alternate reality, Iraq (the great supplier of oil) was the good guy and Iran was the bad guy!  For some reason or another, this reminds me of George Orwell's prescient "1984" where depending on the propaganda of the day, the enemy was interchangeable!  Something had to be done to defeat those nasty Iranians.  

Desperate times call for desperate measures and chemicals seemed to fill Iraq's needs.  According to CIA documents, the United States had known that Iraqis were using chemical weapons against Iranian forces as far back as 1982 - 1983 as shown on this document:

...and this document from the CIA posted on the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) website:

Keep in mind that, as I noted above, during the years from 1982 to 1984, the battlefield situation for Iraq had become desperate with Iraq in defensive mode and the war itself had become a dug-in war of attrition with tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides dying after digging in.   It is believed that the orders for the use of chemicals by Iraqi forces likely came from Saddam Hussein himself; by the mid-1980s, Iraq's total production of chemical weapons including nerve and blister agents was close to 4000 tons according to expert analysts.  While this amount did not allow indiscriminate use of agents by Iraq, it was certainly enough to give Iraqi forces an advantage.  According to the CIA, the source of Iraq's ability to produce chemical weapons, code-named Project 922, was West Germany's Karl Kolb, using the guise of pesticide production as cover.  By the end of the construction in the 1980s, Iraq possessed the world's most modern and best planned chemical warfare facility.

Here is a map showing Iraq's pre-1991 chemical warfare facilities:

Interestingly, Tehran Radio had broadcast allegations that Iraq was using chemical weapons as far back as November 1980.  By February 1984, Iran's Foreign Ministry announced to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament that Iraq had used chemical weapons at least 49 times in border regions between the two countries killing 109 people and wounding hundreds.  Ironically, during the next 31 days, Iraq used chemical weapons an additional 14 times in the Basrah area, wounding another 2200 people.  A followup U.N. inspection confirmed that indeed chemicals had been used.

Even the United Nations knew that Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iran as follows:

1. 1983 to 1986: Used in a defensive role; typically to deflect Iranian human-wave assaults. In 1984 Iraq became the first nation to use a nerve agent on the battlefield when it deployed Tabun-filled aerial bombs during the Iran-Iraq war. Some 5,500 Iranians were killed by the nerve agent between March 1984 and March 1985. Tabun kills within minutes. Some 16,000 Iranians were reported killed by the toxic blister agent mustard gas between August 1983 and February 1986.

2. 1986 to early 1988: Iraq adapts use of chemical weapons against Iran to disrupt Iranian offensive preparations.

3. Early 1988 to the conclusion of the war: Iraq integrated large nerve agent strikes into its overall offensive during the spring and summer of 1988 leading to the ceasefire.

As well, the United States was aware that Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons against Kurdish villages in 1987 and that his forces had used a large-scale poison gas attack on Halabja that killed hundreds to suppress the Kurds who were siding with the Iranians.

Despite all of this evidence, the United States supplied Iraq with intelligence to prevent Iran from exploiting a weakness in Iraqi defences in the the area around the city of Basrah in late 1987 and early 1988.  Satellite imagery captured a buildup of Iranian forces that would have resulted in a very large offensive in the spring of 1988.  According to Foreign Policy, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was given permission to supply the Iraqis with detailed information on Iranian troop movements, buildups and location of their key facilities.  Iraqi forces responded with the use of sarin.  While full details of Iranian deaths are not known, the CIA estimates that deaths numbered between hundreds and thousands in each of the four cases where Iraq used chemical weapons in the final stages of the war.

While it is interesting to note America's anger over the probable use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces, it certainly appears that there was complicity in the use of chemicals by a nation that was seen as to be a key ally to American interests in the Middle East nearly thirty years ago.  While the American administration back in 1988 could not be certain that Saddam Hussein could use the intelligence that the DIA supplied to Iraq to administer his special brand of chemical warfare, in hindsight, the connection between the two looked certain.

Apparently, when it comes to chemical warfare, it all depends whether you're considered to be fighting for or against the political forces of evil.